79-Lub-23 EUW a Crete () $3.00 PER COPY $1.50 TO ASME MEMBERS ‘The Society shall not be responsibie for siatements or opinions ‘advanced in papers or in dacussion at mestings ofthe Society o of ts Divsions or Sections, or printed ins publications. Discussion fs printed ‘oni the paper is published in an ASME journal or Proceedings. Released for general ubliction upon presentation, Full credit should be given to ASME, the Technical Dison, and the authors). Rolling Contact Guidance of Rollers in Spherical Roller Bearings E.M, KELLSTROM Manager, Product Development SKF Goteborg, Sweden When designing spherical roier bearings provision is made for roller guidance by a fixed flange, by @ guiding ring or by the cage. An analysis by computer of the equiliorium of roller has shown that symmetrical rollers can also be guided by the balancing of triction moments in the rolier/ring contacts. The main objective of this paper is to explain qualitatively the mechanism that can make rollers "guide themselves". Furthermore, the analysis e outknod the existence of an optimum roller skewing angle Is shown, and some experimental data are presented, including temperatures of bearings designed for near optimum roller guidance. Contributed by the Lubrication Division of The American Society of Mechanical Engineers for presentation a the Joint ASME/ASLE Lubrication Conference, Dayton, Ohio, October 1618, 1979, Manuscript received at ASME Headquarters July 17, 1979. Copies wil be available wnt ‘THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS, UNITED ENGINEERING CENTER, 345 EAST 47% STREET, NEW YORK, N.Y. 10017Rolling Contact Guidance of Rollers in Spherical Roller Bearings £.M.KELLSTROM Manager, Product Development SKF Goteborg, Sweden ABSTRACT hen designing spherical roller bearings provision is made for roller guidance by a Fixed flange, by a guiding ring or by the cage. An analysis by conputer of the equili- Avriun of a roller has shown that syanetrical Tollere can also be guided by the balancing of friction moments in the roller/ring con= ‘The main objective of this paper is to explain qualitatively the mechanism that can make rollers "guide thenselves". Further~ nore, the analysis is outlined, the existence Of an optimum Foller skewing angle is shown, Gnd sone experimental data are presented, Gncluding tenperatures of bearings designed for near optimum roller guidance. NOMENCLATURE > = roller maximun dianeter ay = bearing mean dianeter r = axial friction force at outer contact F, = axial friction force at inner slide/roll ratio slide roll ratio when / becomes constant = mass moment of inertia = effective roller length = roller mass a 4 " = skew moment from the outer ring ™ = skew monent from the inner ring P = points of true relling Py, Pop = points of true rolling at the outer ring contact x = length coordinate along the 2 = nunber of rollers in a row = bearing contact angle = skew angle = displacement of inner ring = ratio of film thickness/conposite surface roughness roller orbital speed = roller rotational speed = coefficient of friction = maximum coefficient of friction SEE poe «~ friction force per unit length of contact = resultant force on roller force on inner ring from roller centrifugal force = external load on inner ring aT = resultant moment on the roller gyratory moment = position of point of contact = normal force per unit length OPZE, of contact rwTRODUCTION symmetrical barrel rollers in a spherical Poller bearing without integral guide flanges fig. 1, like the balls in a ball bearing, sli into the position that gives lowest contact Stress. The roller maximum diameter D is on the Line connecting the outer and inner ring profile conters A and 8, But unlike a ball, fhe roller cannot pivot, it must be guided in some way. Under radial load, skewing is limited by a guide ring, G, precisely fitted in be~ tween the two loaded rows of rollers. Any attenpt of a roller to skew causes a con- tact with the guide ring and a restoring moment on the Foller. The guide ring does hot move under the influence of that force Because it is backed Up by the opposite row of loaded rollers. It would take a very Strong force to move those rollers even a very small way out of their equilibriur position.A Fig. 1. The synmetrical rollers of a two- row spherical roller bearing position then- Selves with their largest dianeter on the Line connecting the profile centers of the Inner ané outer bearing rings. Under combinations of radial load and moderate axial load the bearing rings dis- place axially relative to each other, fig. 2. Because the roller equilibrium position is exactly between A and B, the rollers also move axially. Both rows move the sane distance, which is half the bearing ring displacenent. Because the guide ring is floating ie moves with the rollers. No additional forces are introduced, and the fit between the rollers and the guide ring is as precise as before. However, if the axial load ss further increased, the load is finally carried by only one fow of rollers, the guide ring 18 then no longer backed from both sides. Tt has been suggested that the loaded rollers then would have no other guidance than by the cage, but practical experience and laboratory experients have shown that other means of guidance are available. A Fig. 2. The floating guide ring permits self—_ adjusthent of rollers, also under the con= Gition of axial bearing ring displacement. The distance between roller ends remains con- stant. The following analysis explains why rollers "guide thenselves". Tt also shows ways to further reduce bearing friction. Some experinental evidence is given. ANALYSIS: If the roller is to be guided without rubbing against the cage or against a flange, it must be guided by the raceways, but gedmetrically there is no constraint fon the roller. Because the outer ring 15 Dart of a sphere, the roller can skew at any angle and still maintain the sane contact with the outer ring. and at the inner ring, the only result of skewing is a slightly Shorter length of contact. Consequently it must be the friction forces in the contact that change with roller skewing in such = way that skewing is reduced.As in all bearings with curved rolling elenent profiles, there is sone slip in most of the contact area because of different peri— pheral speeds. This is often referred to as Heathcote slip. Zero slip only prevails along the-e straight Lines where roller peripheral sp. and ring peripheral speed are equal, fig. 3. These lines are the generatrices of the cones of true rolling. ROLLING CONES Fig. 3. Rolling cones, Heathcote slip and skewing moments from the inner and outer ring contacts. ‘The two points where a line intersects fone contact will be called the points of rolling. Because the lines form angles with the roller axis, the points of rolling Py and P, are not symmetrically positioned with respect to the center plane of the Afoller. To understand the influence of friction forces, we will think of the roller axis as stationary in space, and the bearing rings as rotating in opposite Airections The friction force on the roller has the sane direction as the difference be- tween ring peripheral speed and roller peri- pheral spees. for instance, beyond point Po, at the outer ring, the outer ring peri- pheral speed is higher than that of the roller. Consequently a friction force, directed the way the outer ring moves, acts on the roller beyond P,.. Between the rolling points P}, and P,,, friction forces have the opposite direction. Sone of the friction forces are not balanced by a counterpart on the opposite side if the Skewing axis A-A of fig. 3. These unbalanced friction forces, marked by solid lines in fig. 3, produce a’ skewing moment on the rolior! ‘the moment fron the outer ring opposes the monent from the inner ring. The Balance between these moments determines the equilibrium roller skewing angle. Simulation by Computer In order to fully understand the mechanisn, a detailed analysis by computer was made of the equilibriun of a symmetrical rollers In the equilibrium equations, the magnitude and direction of friction force at every, Point of the contact was considered, Because the complete analysis is lengthy and complex it is not presented here in detail. Attention will be focused only on what is new, established methods of analysis are referenced. The friction force at a point of the loaded contact depends on the magnitude and direction of relative slip, on the contact Pressure, and on the coefficient of friction. Fig. 4. Slip velocities along the contact of a rollér with ero skews For a roller rolling without skew, loaded along the full length of the roller, @ diagram of tangential slip along the con” tact would look like fig. 4. at any given point along the contact, it is assumed that the direction of slip can be repre- sented by the direction of slip at the Centerline of the contact. This is justi- fied for the long and narrow contacts of roller bearings. The amount of slip at various points along the length of the con tact is determined by the position of the Line of true rolling. It's position, in turn, is determined by the equilibrium equations. Tg the roller has a certain skewing, a constant slip in the axial direction 18 Superimposed on the tangential slip, fig. Are 5. of skewing roller. Fig. 5, Slip velocities along the contactFRICTION COEFFICIENT Now both the magnitude and direction of Slip are different at every point along the Contact. The friction force 1s directed Slong the vector of slip. The pressure Aistribution is dependent on the relative conformity between roller Gnd race. It has been calculated for arhi- trary ring and roller profiles by dividing the contact into a multitude of narrow Strips or slices parailell to the rolling direction. This 18 known as the slicing technique, ref, (1, 2). The coefficient of Eriction depends on the properties of the lupricant and on asperity interaction, ref. (3, 4). It is also a function of the elide/rolt ratio, g, defined as mw 922 (Y-U)/UY+U2) where U, U, are the speed vectors of 1 and the tuo contacting bodies. 0.08) 04) 03) 202 aor 002 003 004 005 SLIDE/ROLL RATIO Fig. €. Coefficient of friction. experimen tal data-curved. Approximation used in the analysis-straight Lines. A graph of the EHD coefficient of friction versus slide/roll ratio typically looks like the curve of fig. 6, (5, 6). IM this analveis a simplified straight line mogei nas been used. For small slide/roll fatios a linear relationship approximates the steeply rising part of the curve. For higher slide/roll values, g > q,, 8 constant (Coulomb) coefficient approxinates the flat part of the curve. i PP 4 95% Be 92% Values of 2" and g, are input values to @ the computer program, Either empirical or calculated yalues can be used. The values Of Gy, and A* depend on the lubricant used, on the surface topography and on the film thickness /surface roughness ratio. The theory used when calculating the coefficient of friction including the effects of aspirity Gnteraction, is that of partial EHD (3). Xt each point along the contact exists a vector of Friction force per unit length, ‘€, which is 2 function of contact pressure, the positions of the pointe of rolling, the skew angle and the lubrication conditions. A vector of normal contact force per unit Length, @ , 18 defined dependent on the relative positions of roller and rings, and on the surface profile geonetries (1, 2). ‘The forces are integrated to forn a re~ Sultant force, F, and a resultant nonent,M , fon the roller @ q ha Fad [6 +Qdx . le “ t hfe M 2 [Rr Greer indices 1 and 2 indicate outer ay inner ring contacts respectively, and R is the Vector to the contact point, Tn addition, the centrifugal force, B and the gyratory moment My are considered. IE |=0.5 mows ry [Mg] =U wee, cince «6 ‘The condition for equilibrium of the roller is, F+E=0 om (a) M=M,-=0 ‘Thies yielde 6 conponent equations where the 6 unknowns are the roller tilt angle [rotation about an axis through the roller center, at right angles to the plane of fig. 3), the skew angle (rotation about the axis AA of fig. 3), the positions of the two rolling cone geferatrices and two translational coordinates in the plane of fig. 3. However, for Feasons that follow the Skew angle was ¢ntered as an input value, and one noment equation was evaluated after the other equations had heen solved.A bearing ring equilibrium was also solved (By 2 Fi) BuO 7 where By is the external bearing load, radial or wcll, ie the roller force on the inner ring and z is the number of rollers in the row, The additional unknown is the relative displacement, 6 of tho bearing rings in the radial or axial direction. Thus, a set of 6 nonlinear equations of unknowns was solved. This was done using a general Durpese subroutine for solution of sinultane- ous nonlinear equations. CALCULATION RESULTS Stable Equilibrium Tg the ratio between the absolute values of outer ring skew moment M_ and inner ring skew monent M, is plotted versus the skew angle, the result is typically as shown in fig. a & 3 13. > OUTER RING MOMENT/ INNER RING MOM! & os os| o7| ar 10 ‘5 oO 5 10 15 SKEW ANGLE, Milliradians Figs 7. Ratio of outer ring to inner ring skewing moment versus skew angle for three ifferent executions of the bearing 24126¢. ‘The curve has a negatiye slope and ggnerally intersects the f-axis. For the of the intersection, outer and inner ying skewing moments are equal and opposite. So this is an equilibrium angle, but is it stable? To clarify this question, let ue firat Getine positive and negative skewing angles, Fig. 8. A skewing roller has a surface speed component in its axial direction. Thus, there are axially directed friction force Components at each hearing ring F, and Fy Fig. 8, The skewing angle is defined to be positive when the axial components of friction force counteract the external axial load. Ig the roller is skewing in such a way that the external bearing axial load is counteracted by the axial friction force components, as shown in fig. 8, then this Girection of skewing is called’ positiv Te can be seen fron fig. 3 that the curer ring tries to skew the roller in the positive direction ana the inner ring tries fo skew it in the negative direction. When the roller skewing angle fails on the negative side of the @-axis intersection of fig. 7, then the difference M,-M, is greater than zero, i.e., @ resulting posi- Live skewing moment acts on the rolier, This Causes the skewing angie co change in the positive direction, Back towards the intersection with the’ Bais. Similarly, when the skewing angle falls to the positive side of the ineersection point, a net negative skewing nonent arises and’ forces the roller back to its equilibrium Position. Agcordingly the intersection With the’ Anaxis corresponds toa stable Equilibrium because the curve intersects the Taxis with a negative slope But why does the curve have @ negative slope? ‘The axial forces, F, and F, cause fa tilting monent on the roller, fig. 8, Te ust be balanced by snall dispiacenents of the normal loads on the roller. For the positive skewing shown in the figure, the load applied to the roller by the outer ring is displaced outwards, to the left, and the load from the inner ring inwards, fo the right. Consequently, at the outer ring, the distributed load would become nore nearly symmetrical with respect to the points of rolling. the result is a smaller Skewing moment from the outer ring. At the inner ring the load is further oftcet from the points of rolling. The result is a Greater inner ring sow moment. Thus, 2 Positive skewing angle causes a net negative skewing monent on the roller. And similarly, negative skewing causes a net positive skew nonent on the roller. This explains the inegative slope if the curve, giving stable equilibrium skew angles. ‘The displacenents of loads are small, only about one percent of the roller dia- meter, 0 the influence on life is neglig- Tole, “But nevertheless they are generally sufficient to give a stable equilibriun. ‘optinun skew ‘The equilibriun skew angle does not have zo be exactly zero for the bearing to have low friction. In fact, zero is not even the optimum, Because come Heathcote slip exists fh the peripheral direction, a superimposed anall axial slip, caused by’ skewing, do: not significantly increase the total amount of slip of @ radially loaded bearing, Fig. 9. 25 20) 15] 4 1.0| os FRICTION OF ONE ROLLER FROM HEATHCOTE SUP oo o “510. 5 20 +5 10 15 SKEW ANGLE, Milliradians Fig. 9. Friction versus skew angle of bearing 24126¢ under radial (R) ané axial (A) load For positive skewing and axial bearing load the friction even initially goes down as 6 becomes positive. This is because the axial friction force component carries part of the external load and thereby reduces the normal load in the roller/raceway contact. The result is not only lower friction, but also increased fatigue life. The optinun is a mall positive equilibrium skew angle. Means to Achieve optinun S} The magnitude of the equilibrium roller skew angle is influenced by surface topo- graphy, lubrication conditions and raceway profiles. In the past it was not unusal for fhe eouilibeium angle to be on the negative side, curve 1, fig, 7. But by making certain 6 changes to surfaces and profiles, it is possible not only to reduce the skew angle, Curve 2, but even to achieve positive equili- brium angles, curve 3. Té the inner ring coefficient of friction is reduced, the curve is shifted upwards, curve 2 of fig, 7, This can be achieved by changing the surface topography, the rough~ hese and asperity slope angle. The inner ring heeds to be smoother. Not maintaining the Game encothness of the outer ring 18 not harmful though it may seem so, since it has been long known that reduced roughness in- creases the life of a rolling contact (4). However, since the outer ring raceway/ roller contact is the Longer lived contact with a thicker oil film, an outer ring sone- What rougher than the inner ring does not Significantly influence the life of the bearing as a whole. Of course, #urface roughness may change with time, but the right initial surfaces eliminate the need for a run-in period. 10 35 350 ‘SKEW ANGLE, Mitiracans Fig. 10. The skewing moment is reduced as skewing increases, 1, the reduction is greater when there is a'reduced osculation, 2. Bearing 24126C. An additional effect can be obtained from a change of osculation. The skewing monent is reduced as skewing increases, fig. 10. This is because the available friction forces are directed more and more axially, so that the peripheral components, giving the skew monents, becone smaller. Te the peripheral sliding speeds are made smaller, the reduction comes faster, curve 2. ‘This can be obtained by reducing the oscula- tion, the ratio of roller profile radius to race’ profile radius, By making the inner ring osculation looser than that of the outer ring, the bearing can be protected against negative skewing angles. If the roller skews negatively, both skewing monents are reduced, but the moment from the inner ring is reduced more rapidly because of the smaller amount of peri- pheral slip of the inner ring contact. Te result 1s an increasingly positive net skewing moment with increasingly negative skewing angle. The left part of the curve of fig. 7 bends more stronglyuppwards, curve 3. As a result, there will bea strong tendency for the skew angle to stay avay from the negative values (7). EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS Equipment ‘he reaulte of the analysis have been verified in laboratory tests. Machines were built, in which the test bearing housing is hydréstatically supported, 80 that the bearing friction torgue can be accurately measured. Bearings of up to 430 mm outer diameter can be loaded by thrust loads up to 600 XN, and bearings up to 920 an outer dianeter can'be loaded by radial loads up 6 6000 KN. ‘The skewing angles of the rollers are measured as the bearing rotates. An in- ductive transducer senses the distance to ‘the roller as it passes in front of the probe. Because the signal is highly nonlinear with the distance to the roller end, care- ful calibration is required. That signal and signals for ring speed and Cage speed are processed in a miniconputer. Using the cali~ bration curve, the signals from the inductive proximity sengor are translated into skewing angles, and true averages and standard deviations are computed. 40) 30) 20 BEARING FRICTION TORQUE NM 10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 AXIAL LOAD KN. —— SKEW ANGLE, Milliradians --—+---t Fig. 11, Smaller skew angles and lower friction of bearings designed for optinur skewing, solid lines Bearings 23226¢, speed 400 rpm, lubricant viscosity 18 * 107 ae operating temperature. ns/n?, Resulte ‘One example of such laboratory tests is shown in fig. 11. The broken line shows friction and skewing angles of an axially loaded bearing 23226c with equal surfaces and osculations at both races. The vertical Lines on the skew angle curves indicate the standard deviations. The solid line shows the friction of four new bearings where the means to achieve optinus skew as mentioned above, have been applied. A number of such bearings were subjected to a life test. After that test was concluded, that is 7400 hours under heavy load, or 13'tines their nominal life, evo surviving bearings were tested again. They were still running with small skewing angles, and the friction had even dropped another’ 10-12 %. More practically oriented experiments have also been made, using bearings with the improved roller guidance. In one simple test machine, only the bearing temperatures were neasured. Bearings 23226¢ were run at 940 rpm at a combination of 9 kN radial load and 18 kN axial load. A total of eight ordinary bearings and four modified bearings were tested. The mean tgnperature rise of the ordinary bearjngs was 60°C, with a standard deviation of B.1°C, Whjie thé Rean of the modified bearings was 65°C with a standard deviation of 2.1°C. ‘one advantage of a lover operating tempe~ rature is longer grease life. As a practical rule bearings must be relubricated twice as often for every 15°C additional temperature Tise, A lower tenperature thus means longer Felubrication intervals. Another advantage of the lower heat generation is higher possible bearing speeds. For a given tenpe- rature rise, the bearings can be run at higher speeds. In laboratory tests bearings have been run at speeds far beyond the so called speed Limit shown in catalogues. Synnetrical barrel-shaped rollers not only find an equilibrium position axially, they nay also assune an equilibrium skewing angle, under the sole influence of the forces in the loaded rolling contact. When a double-row spherical roller bearing is radially loaded the rollers spend a very short while in the load zone and may not have enough tine to find their equilibrium angle. However, the guide ring is then active. "Seif- guiding roliers reduce contact forces between Follers and guide ring. When the bearing is under predominantly axial loads, only one row of rollers is Loaded and guidance from the guide ring is not available. However, the load zone is then a full 360” and the rollers have plenty Of time to find their equilibrium angle. For this load case, zero skew is not the optimum, a snail positive skew is. By epecifying certain raceway surface topo graphies ané profiles it is possible to assure that the equilibrium skew angle is Close to the optimum. The resulting lover friction gives practical benefits such as lower operating fenperature, longer relubrication intervals and higher permissible bearing speed,ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Permission to publish, by A/B SKF, Sueden, and support from SKP Gétehorg, the SKP Engineering and Research Centre B.V, (Netherlands) and Sk? Industries, Inc. (USA) are gratefully acknowledged. REFERENCES. 1 Warris, T.A., "The Effect of Mis~ alignnent on the Life of Cylindrical Roller Bearings," ASME Paper 65, Lubs. 15. 2 Andreason, S., "Load Distribution in 2 Taper Roller Bearing Arrangement Con- Sidering Misalignment", Tribology, June 1973, Vol. 6, Nos. 3, PP. 84-92. 3 Tallign, T-E.; "the Theory of Partial Elastohydrodynamic Contacts", Wear, 21, (0872), PP. 49-101. 4 ‘tallian, 7.B., "Blastohydrodynanic Effects in Rolling Contact Fatigue", presented at the Leeds/Lyon Sympositim on Tribology, September, 1978. 5 Johnson, K.L., and Cameron, R., “shear Behaviour of Elastohydroaynan: oil Filns at High Rolling Contact Pressure,” Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Vol. 182, Part 1, PP, 307-319, 1988. 6 Johnson, K-L., and Tevaarwerk, Jebs "shear Behaviour of Blastohydrodynanic oil Fiins", 1977, Proc, Roy. Socs, London, Canbridge University Laboratory, cuED/c~ Mech/Trib., Vol. A 356, 215. 7 “Kelistrén, M., and Blomavist, L., " Roller bearings comprising rollers with positive skew angle", U.S. Patent No. 3990753, (original sw, Patent 355852),